Tourism to become key industry by 2020

2012-01-05 (GMT + 7)

Tourism will become a cutting-edge industry with high professionalism and consistent, modern infrastructure by 2020, under a strategy recently approved by the Prime Minister.

Vietnam will strive to offer diverse and high-quality tourist products imbued with national cultural identity which are able to compete with their counterparts from countries in the region and the rest of the world, according to the strategy for developing local tourism until 2020 with a vision for 2030.

The decision on the strategy signed by the PM took effect as of December 30, 2011.

The country is expected to become a nation with a highly effective tourism sector by 2030.

Specifically, the sector will grow by an average of 11.5-12 percent from 2011 to 2020. It has set the target of welcoming 7-7.5 million international tourists and having 36-37 million domestic tourists in 2015. Total tourism revenues are expected to hit US$18-19 billion in 2020.

The Vietnam travel sector will focus on developing green and cultural tourism packages and strengthening linkages within each region to build tourist products typical of the seven regions across the country.